Your Assistant
by HierophantPurple
Summary: In an alpha worldline where John Titor has yet to travel to the past, Okabe is at his wit's end trying to save Mayuri.
I woke up on a familiar couch. I'd spent the night in the Future Gadget Lab after finishing the Time Leap Machine the previous day. A device that could send someone's memories back in time… I still couldn't quite believe I'd managed to build it. Then again, I didn't know if it worked. It was too dangerous for us to test it.

As I sat up on the couch, I felt oddly disoriented. Not dizzy, just… strange. I tried to pin down what this feeling was.

"Maybe I had a strange dream..." Yes, I felt sure this was it. I tried to recall the dream one fragment at a time.

I was with Okabe and Mayuri. We were just parting ways. I remember Mayuri saying something to Okabe as I walked away. Then I heard a scream…

" _CHRIS-CHAN!_ "

After that, I couldn't remember clearly. I remembered being pushed. I remembered… blood?

"Did Mayuri..."

I heard a noise at the other end of the lab. Okabe was sitting by the desk next to the Time Leap Machine. He was looking at me. But what was that on his head…!

"Okabe! What the hell are you doing!? I thought we agreed not to use the Time Leap Machine!"

Okabe stared at me for a moment. Then he took off the Time Leap Machine's headset and walked over to the couch.

"Kurisu… did you just say something about Mayuri?"

I could tell from his voice that something was very wrong with him. He sounded… dead inside. Not to mention he wasn't calling me by one of his absurd nicknames.

"It was nothing… just a dream I had."

"Tell me."

I had no idea what was going on, but I could tell this wasn't the time to bicker.

"Well, I don't remember it very well… you, me, and Mayuri were there. I was walking away… crossing the street, I think… then I heard Mayuri scream my name. The rest was a blur, but given the context, I think she pushed me away from an incoming car."

"And she got hit instead of you. She died almost immediately."

"Um… well, that's probably right..." But how did he know that?

"So it's similar to Reading Steiner. Strange. You've never remembered before."

"What? Reading Steiner? I'm remembering something!?" I was starting to panic. Remembering? Did that mean the dream was…

"Okabe, did this actually happen? Did you send another D-mail? Or, no… you used the time leap machine?"

"Yes."

"...Could you be a little less detailed?"

Okabe was silent for several seconds. Then he sighed.

"I suppose I might as well tell you the whole story. I've run out of ideas at this point, anyway. Mayuri is going to die tomorrow. There's nothing I can do to stop it."

"What? But can't you just… stop me from crossing the road tomorrow? That way she won't get hit."

"It would seem that the universe wants her dead. If I prevent one cause of death, another takes its place. I've tried dozens of times, perhaps hundreds."

Hundreds? And it took him this long to come to me for help? Or, maybe he _had_ come to me, but I'd been no help to him? The thought terrified me.

"She's been run over, drowned, stabbed, shot, fallen off a building… SERN operatives are responsible a great deal of the time, particularly Moeka."

"Moeka!?"

"Yes, Moeka works for SERN."

I was struggling to process all this information. We'd told Moeka about the time machine. Okabe had even offered to let her send a D-mail, but she couldn't think of anything to send.

"Then we need to prevent Moeka from finding out about the time machine! You can send yourself a D-mail saying not to invite her to the lab-"

"No, that won't work. SERN already knows about us from their global monitoring program. They detected the very first D-mail I sent, the one I sent after seeing you dead in the original timeline I came from. The only way to prevent this is to hack into their servers and delete their record of that message, but that is impossible without an IBN 5100."

And we had absolutely no leads on that.

Okabe continued. "But make no mistake, SERN is not the cause of her death. Many of her deaths were accidents, including an incident where Nae pushed her into a train. She's even dropped dead from a heart attack. This is not the work of SERN, but of the universe itself. Even if we stop SERN, I'm certain she will still die. The universe has forsaken Mayuri. There is… nothing I can do."

* * *

We sat in silence for several minutes as I tried to make sense of what Okabe had told me. Mayuri… such an adorable, innocent girl… was fated to die? In so many horrible ways? What the hell was wrong with the universe!?

No, I had to push those thoughts out of my head. Okabe needed me right now. We needed to figure out what was going on. Slowly, a hypothesis formed in my head.

"This sounds like… it could be Novikov's self-consistency principle at work."

"Self-consistency?" Okabe asked. By the tone of his voice, we hadn't had this conversation before.

"I mentioned it at my lecture. It's like a protective mechanism against paradoxes. If there's a universe where a paradox occurs, that universe can't exist. For example, if you went back in time to kill your grandfather, something would interfere. Maybe your time machine would break down, or your grandfather would overpower you. Maybe you would stab him and he manages to survive. But whatever happens, he can't die, because that would create a paradox. From your point of view, it would seem as if the universe itself was protecting your grandfather. But really, it just means that there doesn't exist any universe where your grandfather dies."

"Isn't that splitting hairs?"

"Maybe. But I don't like to think about it as if the universe has a mind of its own. I don't believe in God, you know."

"Neither do I. But what does this have to do with Mayuri?"

"I'm not sure, but… I think her continued existence might somehow create a paradox."

Okabe let out an exasperated sigh and buried his head in his hands. "Then I was right. Mayuri really is doomed. There's no way-"

"Don't jump to conclusions, you idiot. Let me finish." Damnit, that came out harsher than I meant. Okabe seemed confused, but nodded for me to continue.

"So, like I said… it's possible that Mayuri's continued existence would create a paradox. That's why you haven't been able to find a universe where Mayuri survives. But it's not as hopeless as the grandfather scenario. In that case, the paradox is obvious; you wouldn't exist if not for your grandfather, so there's no possible way to kill him. But this is different. There's no obvious reason why Mayuri's existence would cause a paradox. In fact, it's likely that there are many variables at play here, all of which contribute to the paradox. Mayuri is just one of those variables."

"So if we can figure out what the paradox is… and what the other variables are… we may be able to find a different way to prevent it." Okabe was actually starting to look hopeful, but I felt like we'd hit a wall here.

"Yes… but the problem is, we don't have enough information. If Mayuri is creating a paradox, then she must have a particular influence on future events. But we don't know what those future events are. I can't think of any way to figure out what the paradox is..."

Okabe let out a snort. I looked at him in surprise.

"Heheh… Heheheheheh… MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"O-Okabe?" I stared at him in disbelief. He was back in Kyouma mode already? At a time like this!?

"If this is all some stupid joke, I swear to god-"

"CHRISTINA! For a genius girl, you really can be dense sometimes."

"I-I could say the same about you..." Wait, did I just admit he was a genius?

"We don't have enough information, you say? Hah! Of course not! How could we? We know not what the future holds in store for us. Which is why we will simply find out."

"F-find out how? Don't even think about time leaping into the future, you know how dangerous that could be-"

"Nothing so foolish as that, assistant! Besides, 48 hours into the future is simply not enough. No, we will reach the future in the normal way. We will live through it. We will uncover the true reason behind Mayuri's death, and I shall devote my life to the research of time travel! Once I have solved these mysteries, I will use that knowledge to guide my past self along the path to Mayuri's salvation. Truly, this is an endeavor worthy of the mad scientist... Hououin... K-Kyouma!"

His voice broke up as he burst into tears. What I'd just said to him… it had given him hope, but also terrible despair. With better knowledge of future events, there really was a chance we could save Mayuri. But in order to take that chance, he had to do something he'd never done, even after dozens of time leaps. He had to accept Mayuri's death here and now.

"Okabe..."

He wouldn't be able to do this alone. The PhoneWave name subject to – I mean, the PhoneWave, was a freak accident that somehow turned out to be a time machine. Neither of us truly understood it. Okabe was no slouch, but I knew a great deal more about time travel than he did. He'd need my help.

But there was more to it than that. He was about to lose Mayuri. It was obvious how deeply he cared about her. Hashida would be there for him, but somehow I doubted his emotional support would be enough. Maybe I was just projecting my own feelings, but… I thought he would need me.

So, it somehow felt natural for me to embrace him as he sobbed uncontrollably.

"I want to help. I'll do whatever I can."

He let out a strange laugh through his sobbing.

"Of c-course you will. You're my assistant, after all…"

That made me smile. I was just so glad I was able to help him. I wanted to keep helping him. Really, "assistant" didn't sound like such an inaccurate title. Not that I'd be caught dead telling him that.

We remained in each others' arms until Okabe calmed down. As I let go of him, I looked into his teary eyes.

"What do we do now?" I asked. SERN knew about the time machine. Perhaps we'd need to go into hiding. This would really turn my life on its head.

But Okabe had different priorities. He gave me a sad smile.

"We take Mayuri to ComiMa."


End file.
